Judge Sets Hearing For Kansas Nurse Over Sentencing

TOPEKA (AP) – A drug-addicted nurse who admitted diluting painkillers for patients at a Topeka nursing home will get a December court hearing on her claim that she was misled into pleading guilty.

Wendy Parmenter was sentenced to three years after pleading guilty last November to federal charges of product tampering and adulteration of a drug.

Parmenter says she was wrongly told she would be eligible for early release after completing a prison treatment program. She later learned that the Bureau of Prisons considers consumer product tampering a “crime of violence” not eligible for time off.

U.S. District Judge Richard Rogers said Thursday he was concerned the sentence violated law. Rogers noted cases in which an appeals court ruled that judges could not take prison treatment programs into account for sentencing purposes.